The UKs system of Government. The UK electoral system.

Parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom should be seen as a referendum on the performance of sitting MPs, not merely as a snapshot nationwide opinion poll determining party voting weights for the next Parliament.

The electoral system affects the degree to which voters may hold their representatives to account for their actions in the previous Parliament; changes which would diminish this accountability mechanism should be resisted.

The UK presently has a legislature whose unelected chamber better reflects the relative strength of the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and None of the Above parties.

The Lower House is more democratic.

Contrary to the self-serving views of the Liberal Democrats and other jejune supporters of electoral "reform", what matters for democracy is not representativeness or proportionality, so much as accountability and responsiveness.

When discussing electoral reform in the UK, retaining a "constituency link" is often posited as a requirement.

So, in order of preferability, the electoral systems rank as follows: First Past The Post, and Alternative Vote Single Transferable Vote in multimember constituencies Proper Proportional Representation systems with open lists Proper Proportional Representation systems with closed lists

Having said all this, it must be stressed that electoral reform for the House of Commons should not be considered in isolation from the composition of the other chamber, and the relation between the Commons and three other institutions: the executive, the House of lords, and the courts.

Alternative Vote is the Australian name for a system which when used in single-member constituencies is identical to STV

It should be noted that in the British debate, "Proportional Representation" is used to mean proper PR systems and STV/AV.

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